Some Kind of Reunion
by needdl
Summary: They tried to get together with each other's families at least once a month. Tonight marked Hinata's turn to host, with assistance from Kiba and Shino.


**you may ask, "needdl, whose point of view is this from? what kind of narration does this story have?" to which i respond: "idk lol"**

**(seriously, structured this is not.)**

**i do not own **_**Naruto**_

* * *

Sakura let out a sigh and cuddled little Haruki closer to herself, resting her cheek on top of his soft downy head and closing her eyes.

She opened them again to look at Ino. "I like this," she said plaintively. "I want one."

Ino rolled her eyes and snickered. "You'll have one soon."

"Not soon enough," Sakura told Haruki adoringly. "Almost two whole trimesters to go." He gave her a sweet, drool-y smile and she groaned at the sight.

There was an indignant squawking noise in front of them, and they both hastily turned to check on where Metal and Hui Na were playing. Metal's block tower had fallen over and he was admonishing it (in his little toddler speak) for daring to do so, while Hui Na looked up from her significantly more complex Lego set with a lofty air.

(Shikadai and Chocho, huddled together over a video game on the couch, briefly looked up to check for a tantrum, then ducked their heads back down to attend to their older kid business.)

"On it," Ino called to Gaara, who had poked his head in the room, as she got off her chair to sit next to Metal and help him build his tower back up again. Gaara gave her a brief smile and withdrew again.

Ino and Metal chattered happily away with each other as they worked, and Sakura watched them with a thoughtful eye. Her musings were interrupted when Hui Na suddenly stood up and walked over to her with a few Lego sculptures clutched in hand.

"I made a doctor office," she told Sakura primly, holding it up to show her. Sakura made a noise of interest and leaned in to look, shifting Haruki away from where he was reaching for the brightly colored bricks with wide eyes and intent to place in mouth.

Hui Na pointed out some of the features of her creation. "That's a door, there's the window-" she wrenched off the roof of the house with no regard- "and this is where all the sick people wait."

"That's some nice attention to detail, Hui Na."

"Thanks!" She chirped. "Are you going to have a baby?"

On the floor, Ino let out a snort at the directness of the question, and looked up at Sakura with a grin. "Yeah, Sakura, are you going to have a baby?"

"I sure am," Sakura replied to both of them. "In about five months."

"Mm. My mom had a baby," Hui Na said.

"I know," Sakura said. "I'm holding him."

Hui Na reached out and gently poked Haruki's cheek. "Squish squish," she sang, then grabbed her doctor's office and went back to playing.

Ino was still grinning away wildly. "Kids, man," she told Metal. "You're something else."

He threw his hands in the air, an exuberant, Lee-like grin on his face. "Yay!"

* * *

Dinner was ready a few minutes later, and Tenten came in to get them all. Metal went streaking past her into the dining room right away, hollering and whooping.

"Run! Run! Run! Run!"

"That's definitely Lee's kid," Tenten said dryly as she helped Ino get up off the floor. Hui Na abandoned her toys and trotted over to her mother's side, reaching up to grab her hand with both of her own and wait with her for the other people to get up.

Ino paused on her way out of the room and looked over at where Shikadai and Chocho were still absorbed the video game. "Hey, losers, time to eat."

"In a minute," Shikadai said to his screen.

A vein popped in Ino's forehead. "Now."

Chocho looked up with a pout. "Aunt Ino, we just have a little bit left on this level-"

"Sucks." Ino said unflinchingly. "_Dinner. Is. Ready._"

The pair seemed to recognize the imminent danger in her voice, and dragged themselves off the couch and towards the dining room. Ino followed them menacingly.

Sakura and Tenten both grinned after them, before Tenten turned back to look at Haruki- and Sakura, technically, but she was mostly looking at Haruki.

"How we doing over here?" She asked him in her baby voice. He gave her a goofy grin, gumming at his fingers with drool running down his hand. He pulled his hand out of his mouth and babbled enthusiastically, reaching out towards her with slimy fingers.

"Ohhh," Tenten gently withdrew her hand from Hui Na's and picked Haruki up, propping him on her hip. Sakura let out a forlorn little sigh.

Tenten pressed a kiss to the top of Haruki's head, then smiled down at Hui Na. "I think your baba is getting a plate ready for you in the kitchen, lovie. You wanna go help him out?"

"Yep!" Hui Na turned and walked briskly towards the kitchen, commenting to no one in particular, "I was getting hungry, good timing!"

Tenten smiled fondly at her as she walked away, and soon they could hear her piping voice coming from the kitchen. Tenten fixed her attention back on Sakura. "Everything going okay in here?"

"I want a babyyyyyy," Sakura whined. Tenten shifted Haruki away from her reach, half jokingly and half protectively. "This one is mine. You'll get your own."

Haruki silently nestled closer to Tenten, looking unspeakably cuddly. Tenten for her part looked very pleased with herself.

"I swear, he is the most affectionate baby. He just loves being held."

Sakura stood up and stretched. "I don't remember Hui Na being so cuddly."

"No way." Tenten snorted. "Once she was a couple months old and you held her for more than five minutes at a time she'd get _very _upset."

She shifted Haruki up higher on her shoulder and smooched his cheek. "Not this guy, though, but he is a little shyer than she was."

"Really?" Sakura frowned. "I haven't noticed anything like that. How can you tell?"

"Well, he's less smiley, and if someone he doesn't know is interacting with him he gets a little bug eyed."

There was the soft sound of footsteps behind Tenten, and she turned to look just as Sakura craned her neck to see over her shoulder. Sasuke was standing somewhat awkwardly in the entryway, though none of it showed on his face.

"I've been sent to get you," he said flatly. Sakura snorted.

"What, we taking up too much of your precious time, baby daddy?"

"Don't call me that."

"But it feels so cold and clinical to just call you a sperm donor." Sakura patted his chest as she walked past him. "Maybe I can think of a jazzier title. What do you think of "Gamete Giver?""

"_No_."

"You are zero fun." Sakura continued chatting at him as she walked out, and Sasuke continued to shoot down her suggestions. Tenten snorted and lifted Haruki up so he was level with her face.

She smiled at him. "Hey there, little bug. Did you have a fun time with Sakura? She certainly seems to like holding you." Haruki smiled back at her and excitedly waved an arm in the air. Tenten brought him in close and kissed him all over his face, which- quite unlike his sister at the same age- he seemed to like quite a bit.

"Little cuddle-bug," she told him, cradling him close to her chest and swaying with him. He let out the quietest of coos and rested his head on her collarbone. He did it pretty regularly, but it made Tenten's heart explode every time.

She was still standing like that five minutes later when Neji came into the room to get her, although her back was to him and she didn't notice him standing there for a few minutes, silently watching her sway and hum playfully with Haruki.

Finally he stirred himself. "Tennie, were you planning on eating?"

She turned to face him, a little startled but still smooth in her movements. "Oh, hey! Yeah, I'm coming. Just got a little sidetracked. Do we have the bouncer to put him in while we eat?"

"It's set up by the table."

"Oh, good." She brought Haruki up one last time and kissed his cheek again, and Neji had a moment to watch fondly as Haruki grinned joyfully at the action. She settled the baby back in her arms and turned to walk to the dining room, swiveling Haruki in her arms to face Neji and asking him, "Who's that? Is that your baba?"

Haruki let out a thrilled cry and reached his arms towards Neji, who obligingly scooped him up and propped him on one hip after affectionately kissing his forehead. They followed Tenten into the dining room where everyone had politely not at all waited for their arrival to start eating.

Lee had the grace to look a little guilty, looking up from the kid's table with a mouthful of food as he cut up some tofu for Metal. Hinata, sitting kitty corner to him and chatting with Hui Na, had a plate full of food but hadn't yet taken a bite, bless her.

Tenten stopped and smooched the top of Hui Na's head a few times (much to her daughter's protests) before continuing over to one of the two empty seats at the end of the table. Haruki's bouncer was set up by the corner between the two of them, where it wouldn't obstruct anyone getting up and walking around, plus he could look up and see them.

Neji settled him into it as Tenten sat down at the table (someone had made up a plate with her favorites for her already, most likely Neji) and picked up her chopsticks. Neji snapped the mobile into place, and Haruki instantly became entranced in reaching for the tiny zebra floating above his face.

They conversed with Shikamaru (seated to Tenten's right) and Karui (on Neji's left) as the meal progressed, with occasional input from Temari when she turned from her discussion with Gaara and Ino to check on her partner.

(Neji couldn't blame her- Shikamaru usually chose to talk to maybe four people outside of work beyond casual small talk, and one of them was his mother. Apparently Shikamaru maintained that it made his life easier to have fewer close friends. It evidently pissed Temari off to no end.)

But Shikamaru didn't have much chance in this particular conversation to slack off, not with both Tenten and Karui ruthlessly asking him questions and Neji remembering small tidbits from work discussions that would evoke larger conversation.

By the time Hinata and Shino were getting out dessert, Shikamaru looked like he'd been run over. Temari was looking quite gleeful.

Neji glanced down to check on Haruki and wasn't entirely surprised to find him nodding off slowly, drowsily blinking his eyes up at his parents.

"Stay awake, little man." Neji unbuckled him from the bouncer and lifted him up to sit in his lap, bouncing his leg to keep him awake. Haruki let out a happy little noise and cuddled himself back into Neji's chest, wrapping his hand around Neji's thumb.

Neji glanced back up to thank Kiba when he placed his dessert in front of him and caught Tenten's eye as she watched them both, chin propped in her hand. She gave him a soft look, and Neji could tell that she was internally cooing over the sight of her boys all snuggley.

Behind them, Hui Na let out a cry of delight. "Strawberries!"

Both he and Tenten turned to look at her. Hinata, ever the indulgent aunt, had gotten Hui Na a special dessert of strawberries and whipped cream- Hui Na's absolute favorite. Hinata looked pleased at the reaction.

Hui Na delicately picked up a strawberry with her chopsticks and showed it to Tenten. "Mom look! Strawberries!"

Tenten grinned at her. "Aren't you lucky!" The strawberry fell off the chopsticks and hit the floor with a wet _splat_.

Hui Na stared at it with wide eyes, then looked up at Tenten with a nervous giggle. "It fell!"

Tenten snickered too. "Well, one less strawberry I guess. Here sweetheart-" she handed Hui Na her paper napkin, "Clean it up and we can throw it away."

"Okay." Hui Na put her chopsticks aside and scootched herself out of the chair to accept the napkin. She squatted down to pick up the strawberry and stood back up, eyeing the newly-minted piece of garbage distastefully before holding the napkin out to her mother.

"Here, you take it."

"What!" Tenten grinned at her. "Why can't you?"

"Why can't _you?_" Hui Na giggled.

"No, why can't _you_?"

"No, mom, why can't _you!_"

"No, miss strawberry, why can't _you_!"

"Why can't-" she paused dramatically. "-baba!" Hui Na swung her arm around to offer the napkin to Neji. He blinked, thrown off by his sudden inclusion in the conversation. Tenten and Hui Na looked at him expectantly.

He shifted Haruki in his arms to display him more prevalently. "Don't look at me, I'm just the baby holder."

"Haruki-chan!" Hui Na focused her gaze on her brother, her wide grin showing she knew exactly how silly she was being. "You take it!"

Haruki, catching the excitement in her voice and expression, pulled his hand out of his mouth to grin at her, letting out a squeal as she shook the napkin in front of his face. He started chortling at the sight, and the sound drew Sakura's gaze from down the table.

She watched for a few minutes as Hui Na entertained her baby brother with silly faces and outlandish dancing, sending him into peals of laughter. Tenten had taken the dirty napkin from her hand and placed it next to her own plate so Hui Na could focus her attention on the baby, leaning in to kiss his nose and chatter at him.

_Maybe I want TWO babies, _Sakura reflected. Tenten paused to grab Hui Na's bowl of strawberries and cream off the kid table and place it in front of her own plate, then scooped Hui Na up into her lap and blew a raspberry on her cheek. Hui Na let out a squeal and giggled before tucking into her dessert, alternatively talking to her mom and dad with great cheer and letting out silly noises to make Haruki laugh.

Sakura was still watching them an hour later as the Nara family departed alongside Kankuro, the Lee-Sabaku family, Ino, Naruto, and Sasuke (who gave her an awkward look-and-side-hug combo on his way out the door- they still weren't sure exactly where their relationship stood right now, as friends-who-were-having-a-baby-together-via-artificial-insemination, but-also-who-had-kissed-each-other-a-few-months-ago) leaving the Akimichis, Hyuga-Huángs, and Hinata, Kiba, and Shino to linger and chat.

(Not that Shino and Neji were up much for chatting- or even Karui, really, who usually liked a conversation to be a little more on the purposeful side. Plus, Choji, Chocho, and Tenten volunteered for dish duty, so it was mostly up to Kiba and Hinata to keep the conversation going.)

Hui Na was carefully holding Haruki upright in her arms as he batted at a brightly striped ball, fresh from a quick bottle and rapidly getting drowsy. He paused to urp up some last bits of his meal.

Hui Na made a face and jerked her hands around so they wouldn't get puke on them, though she was very careful not to let Haruki's support fail in anyway. "Ewwwww-"

She swivelled to look up at Neji, seated behind her with a glass of scotch in his hand as he talked with Kiba. "Baba, ewww."

Neji set his scotch aside. "Did he urp?"

"Ewww."

"That's not an answer, little bird."

Hui Na looked him very deliberately in the eye. "Ewww." She told him firmly.

Neji picked Haruki up from the floor and shifted him onto his hip, wiping his mouth with his bib and pulling a rag from the diaper bag by his feet to clean up the baby's shirt. Hui Na watched with a skeptical eye.

"Babies are gross," she told the room at large.

"You were a baby once," Kiba pointed out to her, very logically.

Hui Na hummed in thought. "Mm, nope."

Kiba grinned at the response. "If you say so."

Haruki let out a whimper from his spot in Neji's arms, his face screwing up even as his sleepy head dipped. Neji shifted him to cradle him against his chest.

"I'm going to go put him to bed." There was a chorus of acknowledgement from the room's occupants as he walked out of the room and towards the upstairs, where they'd apparently prepared a room for the night.

(It was kind of weird- obviously Sakura didn't belong to a huge clan like Hinata and Neji did, and while she certainly understood the idea of intergenerational family homes, she couldn't quite imagine staying in the _same _home that you had grown up in for your entire life, a home that had been passed down within the family for decades, on a stretch of property belonging to the family for as long as anyone could remember. Of course Neji and Tenten didn't live here anymore, but Hinata did and it sounded like Hanabi would be making her way back someday as well.

But- Hinata had politely kicked out her father so she could host tonight, and while he'd been perfectly amicable it was still his home as the head of the Hyuga clan. It just made Sakura wonder about the future of clan structures as a new age barreled its way towards Konoha.)

Chocho strutted in as Neji exited, throwing herself down next to her mother with a dramatic sigh. "My skin is _so dry _now from all that dishwashing," she complained.

Karui was unmoved. "We both know your dad washed and you dried."

Chocho waved her hand dismissively. "Dry skin isn't dependent on actual dishwashing, mom. It's a state of mind."

"Sure."

Choji made his way into the sitting room next, looking cheerful as usual as he took his car keys out of his pocket. "Ready to rock and roll?" He asked his family.

Sakura grinned behind her hand. Choji really went full dad when he had a kid he could dad-out with. Chocho was appropriately embarrassed by him when she was old enough.

The Akimichis made their way out the door, and the non-Hyugas followed. Amid the goodbyes, Hui Na climbed into her aunt's lap and presented her with a story to be read aloud.

When Tenten came in from putting away the last of the dishes, Hui Na was happily leaning back against Hinata's chest as she read, tucked into a plush armchair with an elegant blanket covering them both. Tenten sat in the couch across from them and watched from over her mug of decaf coffee.

Neji entered the room again a few minutes later, a burp rag over his shoulder and the baby monitor in his hand. He also had a line of what was most likely baby poop across his abdomen.

(He looked cute and domestic, but he probably was not interested in wearing that stain.)

Tenten gestured vaguely across her own abdomen as he made to sit down next to her. "Love, you've got…"

He glanced down at his shirt and his brow creased in distaste. "Ewww." Hui Na called from across the room.

Neji gave her a fake-reprimanding look that had her giggling, then starting stripping out of his button-down to the undershirt he had on beneath it. Tenten- who'd had two glasses of wine with dinner after nine months of pregnancy and sobriety- watched with a _very _pleased eye.

Neji's chest and arms flexed as he pulled of the shirt. Tenten hummed loudly in appreciation, her eyes fixed on the movement of his muscles.

Neji looked mortified. "_Tenten_."

"That's right," she told his abs. "Tens across the board."

(Across the room, Hinata buried her face in the book she was reading to Hui Na and started talking just the slightest bit louder. Thankfully, Hui Na remained engrossed in the story and had lost interest in paying any attention to her parents.)

Neji turned away from her, face pink, and set his shirt aside with the pooped-on area carefully not touching anything. He sat down next to Tenten on the couch, and she picked up the mug of tea she had placed on the side table next to her and offered it up to him.

He blinked twice in rapid succession, the lift of his brows and slight easing of the corners of his mouth telling her he was surprised and pleased. "Thank you."

Chuffed, she grinned up at him, her cheeks dimpling in a way he would never admit he found captivatingly charming.

They sipped their drinks in companionable silence for a while as Hinata kept reading to Hui Na, more and more quietly as the little girl starting dozing off in her arms.

When Hui Na's head dipped for almost an entire five minutes before she jerked it back up, Tenten figured enough was enough. She put her mug aside and crossed the room to scoop up Hui Na, telling her "Bed time, lovie."

"Nooo…" Hui Na screwed up her face and half-heartedly pushed on Tenten's shoulder in an effort to get away. "Mama, I'm not tired." Despite her protests, her eyes remained closed and her head drooped slowly onto Tenten's shoulder.

After a moment, she mumbled, "I want Aunt Nana to keep reading stories…"

"Maybe in the morning," Tenten told her, making her way upstairs to the room with Hui Na's bed set up. She was right across the hall from where Neji and Tenten were sharing a room with Haruki's bassinet.

It was a sign of Hui Na's exhaustion that she didn't make any more protests, simply leaning against Tenten as she got her into her pajamas. Task complete, she tugged her upright again. "C'mon, kidlet, let's got brush your teeth."

"Nooo, I wanna go to bed!" Hui Na was getting close to the tantrum side of her exhaustion. " 'M not gonna brush my teeth."

"Yes you are," Tenten said in her I Am Your Mother voice, the one that would not hear any arguments. Hui Na's face puckered up, but she followed Tenten into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes and one back rub for a sleepy little girl later, Tenten quietly exited Hui Na's room and ducked into her own and Neji's to check up on Haruki.

He was slumbering away and swaddled up in his blankets, looking frankly adorable. Hui Na at the same age hated being swaddled but concurrently would startle herself awake without it, and they'd had a rough time of it getting her to go to bed when _she_ was eighteen weeks. Haruki fell asleep far more easily than Hui Na had, but also woke up frequently to nurse and be cuddled by his parents. Tenten couldn't decide if she wanted him to stay so clingy (but affectionate!) or not.

(Hui Na certainly _liked _her parents' affection, but also didn't want it lavished upon her the way Haruki did.)

Tenten lingered for a moment longer, watching her son sleep, then headed back downstairs.

Neji and Hinata were playing shogi, both wearing nearly identical frowns of concentration. Tenten bit back a grin.

She picked up her still-warm coffee and took a seat next to Neji, watching idly as Hinata dithered over her next move.

"Did Hui Na put up a fight?" Neji asked, eyes focused with laser intensity on the board.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Tenten told him, covering a yawn with another sip of coffee. Hinata made her move, and Neji instantly retaliated, hand shooting out to place his piece.

Hinata's frown intensified. "At least give me a chance to think," she said, as petulant as Hinata ever got (which was not very petulant at all.)

"You spent the last five minutes thinking," Neji told her, a touch of arrogance coloring his voice. "I'd think you could have come up with something."

Hinata let out the smallest, politest of _harrumphs_. She contemplated the board.

"I'm going to win," Neji told Tenten, who had slowly curled into his side. She snorted. "Okay, I'm not rooting for _you_ now." She stood up, went around the board, and cozied up to Hinata. "Kick his butt, Nana."

There was silence for a few seconds as Hinata contemplated the board, then whispered, "I appreciate the confidence, but I _also _think he's going to win."

Tenten let out a choked laugh. "Hinata! Have a little faith in yourself!"

"He's backed me into a corner!" Hinata whispered squeakily, gesticulating at the board. Seemingly at random, she reached out and moved a piece. Neji retaliated quickly, then sat back in satisfaction. "I win."

"Not yet, technically." Hinata muttered. Without regard, she moved another piece. "Fine. Now you win."

"Correct." Neji captured her king and set it down beside the board.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Ugh, babe, you're so hot when you're an asshole about winning."

"Jealous," Neji told her crisply. "You're _also _terrible at shogi."

The decorative pillow Tenten threw at him made a very satisfying _thump _as it smacked into his face.


End file.
